Google Wallet update brings loyalty cards, Spanish support

The Google Wallet app for iOS and Android has been updated today, and brings with it some tweaks that may have you actually wanting to use it. Instead of relying on mobile payments, Google’s troubled app now keeps track of your loyalty cards, and even lets you request money or pay someone for free.

In addition to keeping track of your loyalty cards, you can also manage your gift cards and redeem them in-store. with a snap of your smartphone camera, you can make sure all your cards are kept safely in Wallet. To redeem gift cards or use loyalty cards, all you have to do is show them to the cashier at the store to scan.

Relying on their location awareness capabilities, Google Wallet will also send you a notification when you’re near a store where you have a gift card. For now, this is limited to a few merchants, like Nike, Toys-R-Us, and Whole Foods.

Wallet will also let you send money using the Gmail feature that rolled out some time ago, but the transaction fees have been waved. Google used to charge a 2.9% fee, but that’s been removes. The app also supports Spanish now, so those more comfortable with Spanish will find the app much more useful. It’s still limited to use on the US, though.